Computer applications typically access computer or system resources through an operation system. Resources might be files, libraries, system services (e.g. cut & paste, printers), registry or configuration information, and others. A virtualization environment or component virtualizes an application's access to system resources, transparently handling the application's access to system resources as though the application were dealing directly with the operating system.
A virtualization environment can manage access to multiple sets of system resources, some of which may overlap or conflict. A native operating system might have a set of file resources including a file with a filename such as “/somepath/someFileName”. An application virtualization package (or a set of shadow resources) might have a different file instance that uses the same filename; for example, “/path/someFileName”. The virtualization environment will manage an application's access to “/path/someFileName” in a manner that is transparent to the application. The application might write to “/path/someFileName”, and the virtualization environment will determine which instance of the file “/path/someFileName” will be the written to; the native operating system file or the virtualization package file.
Techniques related to managing access to resources are discussed below.